An MTV Reality Special: Remembering Alexis Eddy

BY DC CUEVA                             

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

    Estimated Reading Time: 26 MINS.

Six years ago this month, MTV entered the modern romantic dating television genre with Are You The One?, a show which mixed the channel's signature formula for reality success with love, money and romance -- something it has done now for eight seasons. Last year, the series opened its arms to the LGBT community with Come One, Come All, and it was just last week that the sexually-fluid season that recieved much attention from both the gay & lesbian community and the mainstream media was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award in the reality TV category. And the show's success have seen some of its 160+ alumni cross over to the U.S. version of global franchise Ex On The Beach and its long-standing competition series, The Challenge, among other MTV shows.

When AYTO debuted in 2014, it was the same year that two of MTV's most beloved personalities were taken from us much too soon. In a span of only thirteen days that autumn, Challenge legend Diem Brown lost her battle with ovarian cancer, then on Thanksgiving fellow competitor and Real World Back to New Orleans alum Ryan Knight was found dead -- both coming before their last season together on Battle of the Exes 2. The outpouring of sorrow from fellow alumni and the fandom that month was overwhelming and spoke to the power of TV that allowed fans who followed them to that last season in South America to join in the grief of a month none of us have ever forgotten... it's almost as if we lost someone we actually knew, even it was only through TV and social media.

Instagram @Lexoquence

One week ago this Thursday, those fortunate enough to have had a chance to look for love on Are You The One suddenly came to grips with something that their cousins in The Challenge community went through with Diem and Knight, with a previous generation with The Real World when Pedro Zamora died after his valiant battle with AIDS, and what happened to a fellow West Virginian that cut short 2013's breakout series Buckwild. For the very first time, this dysfunctional but tight community of those who've been on AYTO over its eight seasons had to deal with a member of their alumni passing away this soon... and it offered a sad postscript to one of its most popular casts: Season 6 from fall 2017.

From when news of it spread from her home of West Virginia to now, the past seven days have afforded ample time for family, friends and castmates to offer their remembrances of a lady who was taken away from us so soon... one who was one of AYTO's most vibrant and joyous personalities who always made everyone laugh and smile whenever she walked into any room. But Alexis Eddy was more than just that one who had a zest for life: she had a startling backstory involving something that's now become commonplace in mainstream media of true crime, and one who had become open in sharing her personal battles with drugs and addiction and the always tough task of staying sober.

Just as it was during that most surreal month of November 2014, it's always a tough thing for us at DCBLOG to represent the fandom who watches these shows as a voice of reason to say farewell in what is always a most difficult and poignant to compose, both logistically and on an emotional level as one who has followed Are You The One from day 1 and has become good friends with a lot of its alumni - including Alexis herself a few times. But here, we hope to paint as good a brief portrait of her life and the magical time she was on our screens, as we offer this one final and lasting tribute to this energetic & memorable lady of one that friends, family and her castmates knew simply as Lexi.

DC SocialPulse: Floribama Shore - Family, Vacations & A Broken Heart

*** Advisory: DC SocialPulse contains adult language, objectionable content & spoilers for some readers. Viewer Discretion is Advised. Due to its length, take frequent eye breaks if you're reading this top to bottom. ***

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

Welcome back... if there's a place to be this winter, it's likely you'll pick Florida for that it's shorts weather this time of year and you can simply relax on the beach instead of shivering in the snow. MTV has done that here with Siesta Key in it having just premiered its third season this past week, and not far from that suburb of Sarasota, FL is the metropolitan area of Tampa Bay & St. Petersburg, and in the small community of St. Pete Beach, it is the home to Season 3 of Floribama Shore.

On post-Christmas Night, Party Down South alum & Challenge finalist Mattie joined Gus and his castmates for Pride Week celebrations, but after a meltdown she had after arriving at the house she decided to tough it all out for the summer. But last week came the return of the single biggest split the Shore franchise has ever seen had since we saw the end of SamRon: a friendly game of dodgeball in a trampoline gym that kids and kids at heart love to play led to a dinner night that turned sour for Gus and Jeremiah. And that aside, Aimee left the house for a day to tend of legal matters relating to last year's arrest, and they prepped her for that by holding a mock session of court in their house.

Two characteristics that distinguish Floribama from MTV's many other global Shore iterations are that the cast is not afraid to show their emotions, and there's a much greater & deeper appreciation of the families who raised them, and those they call friends back home. That will be very much be the case here this week, as the fellas will head up to South Carolina to ultimately bring all the roommates together as they try to heal that broken bromance. The ladies, though, will fly to Mattie's hometown of Nashville, a city now with Super Bowl hopes again as we write this... but one of them will head to Music City to help make sense of, and get closure of, the most traumatic day of her life.

After the break, the lessons of family, friends and mending a broken heart take shape as we bring you the Pulse of perhaps the most emotion-packed episode yet of Floribama Shore. You'll want to have those tissues handy in a week that's certainly brought plenty of those.

DC SocialPulse: Ex On The Beach Peak of Love - "SOS, Save Our Singles"

*** Advisory: DC SocialPulse contains adult language, objectionable content & spoilers for some readers. Viewer Discretion is Advised. Due to its length, take frequent eye breaks if you're reading this top to bottom. ***

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

Hello again and welcome back... this week, our hearts are feeling heavy as we join with the broader MTV community to mourn the tragic death this week of Are You The One alum Alexis Eddy. Again, we'll be offering our own farewell to her later on here, but again we proceed with the business of covering the week's episodes, as we now head to Ex On The Beach: Peak of Love in New Zealand.

Last week, the international phenomenon that has taken Britain and the world by storm, Love Island, took center stage for the first of what will be two times in the overall scheme of things on EOTB, as an alum of that show will be on new series of the UK version coming this months overseas. Georgia of the 2018 UK series had her relationship with a man whose original show Ibiza Weekender returns to UK screens also this month, Callum, get tested when Sam from her season in the villa came by as her second ex to join fellow Islander Niall, who in turn scored the getaway Fire date with Allie.

Those who've been rolling with Ex USA from the start know that we're at the halfway point of the season once the roles get reversed for just a temporary but lasting part of the season. That will be the case here this week as the Sauna of Secrets will be opened to all of the Exes for the always tense week where they are in charge of which Single they want to send home for the week's Ice Ceremony. Meanwhile, the on-again/off-again relationship of a Naked Brothers' girlfriend and a single from Love Island will once again find itself on shaky ground, while the spotlight will finally turns to that singer who's been performing in the background.

After the break, the Pulse of Singles Cut week on Ex On The Beach: Peak of Love, plus we'll get down with the most notorious ex of Season 2 and her adorable daughter, and we'll join our resident Canadian for a birthday south of the border with some of his Bachelor friends and a member of last year's Big Brother season. Thanks for joining us...

Inside MTV Reality: The Siesta Key WRAP - The Season 3 Premiere

BY DC CUEVA                      

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

On a normal weekend, we'd be in an upbeat mood here to cover the week's MTV Reality activity for those of you who've been following DCBLOG's coverage of these shows for seven years. But this is not one of those: we are standing alongside our friends from Are You The One? as they mourn the sudden & unfortunate passing of Alexis Eddy of Season 6, and this week's posts are starting a day later than first scheduled as we grieve with her family, friends and former castmates during this tough and unexpected time. We'll pay a final tribute to Alexis later during this week's posts, but first we move onward with the top priority at hand of covering this week's episodes...

Ever since I first got to write a preview of the show before it debuted in July 2017, I've become increasingly fascinated with the older, college-aged version of the MTV show of the mid 2000's that changed the game in reality TV and inadvertently introduced me to social media. The experience of having watched Lauren Conrad & Kristin Cavaliari battle for Stephen Colletti's heart on Laguna Beach a decade & a half ago made it a smooth transition to go from being obsessed with the world revolving around The Challenge, Are You The One and The Real World into taking an escape to watch Siesta Key... and it continues my growth to now covering more of the MTV Reality beat than it was a few years ago.

It's been quite a first two seasons of a show born out of the spirit of both Laguna and The Hills, and where we've seen romances blossom and melt away in the steamy & sultry heat that is summertime in Florida. And thanks to the many things that made its predecessors out on the West Coast so addictive to watch for those who grew up watching that show and those who've been introduced to this subgenre in Florida -- the fascinating people, the cinematic filming style, the cool musical soundtrack and of course all of the drama, I've become a fan of Siesta Key in these three years... it's no surprise given my increasing appreciation for everything else in this reality bubble of ours in recent years.

The last time MTV viewers left the Key eight months ago, it ended the same way as the second half of the first season did a year earlier: Juliette and Alex breaking up... only this time, it was after Chloe discovered a video of him with an unidentified girl at a local concert in one of those investigations she loves being able to do -- and after the King gave the Queen a necklace on her 21st birthday. We also saw Cara lose it with Garrett and Pauly stir some drama at her end of summer party at her beach house... all coming at the end of our second summer in this paradise that began with her & Jared crashing Alex's party, saw rekindled feelings, broken hearts and a whole lot in one summer.

What has gone on in this part of the Sunshine State in the time since that season ended on TV last April and up to now is so fascinating with its many twists & turns, perhaps it's no surprise that starting here and now Siesta Key has its own weekly DCBLOG post. And it's because of Spencer Pratt's Cosmopolitan recaps being a thing of the past that we now have this opportunity here to step in and do as best a job we can to review the episodes as we see it here... and we begin at the beginning of another summer in central Florida as Juliette goes through one of every young adult's biggest rites of passage. Welcome back to paradise...

DC SocialPulse: Floribama Shore - Work, Dodgeball and Dinner Tabs

*** Advisory: DC SocialPulse contains adult language, objectionable content & spoilers for some readers. Viewer Discretion is Advised. Due to its length, take frequent eye breaks if you're reading this top to bottom. ***

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

Welcome back to our 1100TH POST here at DCBLOG, and the year that is 2020 as far as MTV Reality is now well and truly underway... we'll explain that very reason here in due time. But as far as those seven lucky people who are now calling St. Pete Beach, Florida home this winter are concerned, summer in Floribama Shore is also now in full swing.

On the day after Christmas - Boxing Day fittingly in much of the world, the Shore housemates got to join with the rest of the Tampa Bay community to celebrate Pride Week and the LGBT community which made plenty of positive strides in 2019. But in addition to that, Gus got to introduce his group to one who he got to know quite well last year, as Party Down South alumnus Mattie met up with them months after she and him got to compete on The Challenge: War of the Worlds. And she helped to bring that sense of fun to the group just after all the drama of the summer's first month.

But at the end of her first night, Mattie had a breakdown in the house... and as we rejoin them here she will decide if this is just a weekend's visit or if she will take up an extended residency in SPB. Meantime, a sport that was thrust into the spotlight many years ago by way of Will Farrell's cult favorite movie takes center stage, and even a friendly game of that may respark the JeriGus fires of a few weeks ago. And Aimee is preparing to meet the judge to settle last year's scrap that got her on the front pages, and the roommates rally behind her as only they can.

After the jump, the Pulse of Week 7 of Floribama Shore from Central Florida, plus we'll let you in on plans to cover something new for this DCBLOG site. Thanks for joining us this late night...

DC ExtraTime: Wonderful Christmastime in Ex Land

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

As the holidays of Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas and New Year's are now officially behind us on this back to work & school day, the cold weather hasn't left us in most of the country here in this "Blue Monday" - the Monday after the holiday break for kids and adults everywhere. But that doesn't diminish the magic of the coldest time of the year as "Cuffing Season" is in full bloom in January, and retailers' focus turns now to supplying the candy for Valentine's Day, which this year falls on a Friday among many holidays that will take place on or during the weekend this 2020.

Ex On The Beach has been playing into the theme of love ever since its debut on British telly's six years ago, and it arriving in America two years ago. Its fourth season of the U.S. iteration, Peak of Love, rolls along with big name stars from around the reality world having their winter vacation crashed by their exes, while over in Britain the show returns with a Celebrity version this month as Love Islander turned Challenger Georgia Harrison is part of that series' cast along with Georgie Shore vet Sophie Kasaei.

And over the holidays, three of those who were cast onto the U.S. version as singles who moved into the house at the beginning -- and a fourth who came as an Ex a few years after he made his MTV debut on Are You The One -- got to mark the magic of yuletide with two things that are a common sight at Christmastime: decorating and giving back.

DC SocialPulse: Ex On The Beach Peak of Love - "The Bird Has Landed"

*** Advisory: DC SocialPulse contains adult language, objectionable content & spoilers for some readers. Viewer Discretion is Advised. Due to its length, take frequent eye breaks if you're reading this top to bottom. ***

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

Hello there to those in web land, and in case we've not spoken yet some 100+ hours into this new decade, a very Happy New Year to all of you out there. It's the first weekend of 2020, and as we all dread what's being called "Blue Monday" in the first day of work & school after our Christmas & winter holiday break, there is good news. In the world of MTV Reality, two places will be the focus this winter: Florida with Floribama Shore and Siesta Key (for which we got to preview it earlier), and New Zealand where a winter break for lovers is taking place: Ex On The Beach - Peak of Love.

Last week on Boxing Day in much of the world & the day after Christmas everywhere else was a memorable night that saw entrances for two past Challengers into our Thursday night entertainment. In the case of the winterfest, five-season alum Jemmye arrived onto the Peak as Marlon's ex, and they had to settle what happened the night of being ghosted that, before she flew down here, she deleted all evidence of that night. And Nicole and her Challenger ex took center stage - this time at the Ice vote: Laurel walking out during the ceremony and eventually getting voted off herself.

Those of you who love reality dating TV have no doubt heard about the global phenomenon Love Island, which begins a new series in the UK next week and debuted in America this past year. This week, Georgia finds herself in the heart of the chalet's weekly soap opera when her & Callum's relationship get its first test when an Ex she's been dreading emerges into the Chalet. Meanwhile, tensions are flaring up for the latest love interest of our resident makeup & social influencer... just as a date in bed & on horseback awaits two lovebirds in the latest in the battle for that other British ex.

All the action, reaction and interaction is ahead in, what is, our first SocialPulse diary of the 2020's, and we'll also have a visit from that lovable snowman from Frozen. But after the jump, we'll be joining Team MTV as they ring in the new year and new decade. Thank you for joining us...

The Look: Siesta Key - New Year, New Drama, Newbies Galore

CAUTION: Due to a heavy presence of graphics & video, this post is best viewed on desktops & advanced mobile devices.

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

Every winter, a migration takes place that affects the populations of cities throughout North America: in early November when the cooler weather starts to trickle in for those living in the Northeastern United States and Canada, those who are lucky enough who decide that going through the snow isn't exactly their cup of tea. People from a wide range of demographics -- retirees to younger people -- pack up for a few weeks or months, and travel down south to second homes located hundreds of miles away, and hop on RV's to drive to what's known as the Sun Belt of states in the Southern U.S., as well as Mexico and the Caribbean. Considering how cold it is in much of the country this first weekend of 2020, it's a welcome relief for them and for those who yearn for the sun & the heat.

Wintertime has arrived in the world that is MTV Reality, and save for ventures to New Zealand for a winter-themed season of Ex On The Beach among other things, the focal point for many who follow TV's most-talked-about reality shows is on the state of Florida, a haven for those who come here for retirement, and a playground for those young and young at heart to enjoy the sun when everyone else is shivering in the cold. For now, Floribama Shore is into its third season with plenty of drama having gone down in its first month in its new home of St. Pete Beach outside of Tampa Bay. It moving down the way from Panama City Beach brings it much closer in its homebase to another MTV series that debuted in 2017 in one of TV's most-coveted timeslots, and sharing a logical history with one of the channel's legacy hits, as it continues to enjoy its renaissance in relevance.

Summer 2017 saw us head down for the first time to Siesta Key, a small, quaint neighborhood outside Sarasota that is best known to locals for their world famous and top-rated beaches, but thrust into the national spotlight by the MTV cameras. The same producer tandem of Mark Ford & Kevin Lopez -- who blended reality TV, the patented MTV formula and the dramatic world of daytime soap opera in Laguna Beach of over a decade ago -- got to follow a group of friends in this town just a short drive from Sarasota, FL (and an half-hour from SPB) who were older than when they first followed Lauren Conrad and Kristin Cavallari in Orange County. This group has the same fascinating drama and dynamic as their West Coast cousins as they navigated through the pitfalls of adulthood, but with also a more personal touch and awareness of what millennials are going through right now.

The first two seasons of Siesta Key have seen this clique go through so much in two summers in this paradise: the on-and-off again romance of a entrepreneur dad's law school student & the college-aged crush who's had her heart broken many times, the aspiring musician & his ways with ladies including one who got let down last summer, the Midwestern model who ghosted the town's resident gym rat and proceeded to get close with that student's ex, and whatever the source on juicy gossip among this group that she might spill to these people. There's also the gorgeous galas, a rapper's family drama, life for a Navy man and lots more drama that's made this show a guilty pleasure for all of us.

Last year The Hills made its return, and with one of its biggest stars being an avid fan of the show, Spencer Pratt and everyone else are ready to return to Florida for Season 3 of Siesta Key. This time, the ante has been upped in the level of stakes again, thanks in no part by taking a page from that California playbook of bringing in someone a certain group of viewers know to the show, and it's someone who's used to romance with those in the world of reality TV. It's the tip of the iceberg to what promises to be an amazing season - and not just for the buzz that accompanies the road to a new year of drama in the sun. But it's best to take a look back at where we've been before we dive in...